Quality Assurance panel to visit March 22-23

A panel of provincial auditors are scheduled to arrive later this month for NC’s Program Quality Assurance Process Audit (PQAPA)..

PQAPA is a provincially-mandated review of each college’s program quality assurance processes. Colleges undergo the audit once every five years, and this year a PQAPA takes place at Niagara College. A self-study was completed by a college-wide committee earlier this year, and sent to the provincial panel for review. The panel will visit NC March 22 and 23 to meet with Niagara College’s executive team, as well as groups of faculty, staff and students.

“The PQAPA is a way of ensuring that we have the processes in place to ensure the quality of our programs and services,” said Sean Kennedy, Vice President Academic. “Our self-study confirms that we have effective quality assurance processes in place, and we’re confident that the auditors will be impressed with what they find.”

Through their meetings at Niagara College, the provincial auditors will confirm the findings of the College’s self study, which measured NC’s internal quality assurance processes using six criteria, including:

· program learning outcomes · communication of information to students · program structure that conforms to provincial policy · program delivery and evaluation methods · human, physical, financial and support resources · regular program quality assessment involving stakeholders, and focused on continuous improvement.

The self study provides a wide range of evidence in support of NC’s quality assurance process, from academic practices such as program standards and accreditation to templates and documents such as committee minutes, program manuals and course information sheets. It includes the methods we use to communicate learning outcomes and course information to students, and the tools we employ to ensure our curricula are current, relevant and meet provincial standards, including input from industry through Program Advisory Committees and input from students through curriculum meetings.

“Quality assurance is a key priority at Niagara College, and we have a comprehensive set of processes in place that ensure our programs and services meet or exceed system-wide standards,” said Kennedy. “Quality assurance is how we make sure our students succeed.”

Further information regarding the PQAPA and quality assurance at Niagara College is available online. Regular updates will also be provided on InsideNC.